‘For instance,’ [Meryl Streep] says, forking at a bread-crumbed oyster, ‘we are taught about Benedict Arnold, the first traitor in America, but I’ve never heard—until I went onto the [National Women’s History Museum] Web site—about Deborah Sampson, the first woman to take a bullet for her nation. She was 21 years old in the Revolutionary War. She enlisted on the American side under a man’s name, wore boys’ clothing, was cut with a British saber across her forehead, and took a musket ball in her thigh.’ She’s a good storyteller, with a warm, urgent voice. ‘And her compatriots carried her six miles to the doctor’s, and he stitched up her head and she wouldn’t let him take her pants off—because he would discover she was a woman!’ So did she die of her wound? ‘No—she was very good with her needle, so she cut the musket ball out and sewed her own leg up and served another eighteen months. In 1783 she was discharged, went home and had three children.’ Sampson was granted £34 by the state of Massachusetts for exhibiting ‘an extraordinary instance of feminine heroism by discharging the duties of a faithful, gallant soldier, and at the same time preserving the virtue and chastity of her sex unsuspected and unblemished.’ Amazing story. ‘And I am 60 years old and I learn this story,’ says Streep. ‘I should have learned that story in the fourth grade. Because it helps you as a child to know that it is not just Paul Revere riding a horse and calling, ‘The British are coming, the British are coming.’ It’s not just Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and the battles won, it’s the bravery of all these people that are undiscovered, unknown.’

“Meryl Streep: Force of Nature,” Vogue  (via marxisforbros)

What up, lay-deeeezzzz

(via girl-non-grata)

Source: thatluciegirl

5241 Notes/ Hide

  1. docpeace reblogged this from draayder
  2. draayder reblogged this from llamasgotoheaven
  3. nevertrustagator reblogged this from lemonmeringuespy
  4. woppyjod reblogged this from llamasgotoheaven
  5. pivlywhip reblogged this from tim--canterbury
  6. stephaniehartwig reblogged this from feminismisprettycool
  7. lemonmeringuespy reblogged this from llamasgotoheaven
  8. tim--canterbury reblogged this from llamasgotoheaven
  9. llamasgotoheaven reblogged this from treacly-truth
  10. treacly-truth reblogged this from feminismisprettycool
  11. ofwhiskeyandwine reblogged this from sarahross89
  12. babblingbubbles reblogged this from feminismisprettycool
  13. feminismisprettycool reblogged this from zarkingfrood
  14. zarkingfrood reblogged this from sarahross89
  15. sarahross89 reblogged this from jenniferehle
  16. pandaseal reblogged this from karnythia
  17. collectionofthings reblogged this from moorehn and added:
    I read an Ann Rinaldi book on Deborah Sampson years ago. But also: word.
  18. cinnamuffin21 reblogged this from nosweetyno
  19. em-musee reblogged this from jenniferehle
  20. iwanttobeeffystonem reblogged this from sloth-bear
  21. jajajahmay reblogged this from kneedheart and added:
    thatluciegirl ) YOU GO GIRL!
  22. heartinakiln reblogged this from noteleanor
  23. raykat reblogged this from royalfan
  24. st-vanillabean reblogged this from laxicana
  25. mysteriousdancing reblogged this from thepersonalispolitic
  26. thepersonalispolitic reblogged this from karnythia
  27. en-amour reblogged this from thatluciegirl
  28. cindiitastic reblogged this from ilikeyzeepies and added:
    love Meryl Streep. She’s one classy lady.